HeiBlog

I had to hightail it from the South End to the Fenway in 30 minutes, but I got to the theater in time. My friend Sciencegrrl got a pass for two to see a preview of Hellboy from her friend Matt (proprietor of Comicopia). I had to sit in the front row because there were no seats left (could not sit next to my friend), but I did get to live the movie.

I’ve not read the comic, but according to Matt this movie follows the first Hellboy book. Admittedly the story is a predictable once you get the basic gist, but that did not lessen the gratification. The movie starts during WWII, which the Nazis trying to open a portal into a dark dimension. Idea was to bring through 7 gods that would unleash Armageddon. Rasputin was the locksmith of the gate, yes the mystic advisor to the Romanoffs. The Professor Bruttenholm is the paranormal advisor to FDR and is guiding a army unit to try and thwart the Nazi’s plan. Hell ensues and a being makes it through the portal, a demon with an affinity for Babe Ruth candy bars. The Professor befriends him and raises him as his son. The army unit gives him the name “Hellboy” later he will be called “Red” as a nickname.

Fast foward to the present day and the army unit that stopped the Nazi’s becomes the “Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense” managed by the FBI who consistently claims that it does not exist. Hellboy is “in his 20s” and is a bit rebellious, goes on unsupervised outings, is in love… you get the picture. He is the USA’s main soldier for fighting “things that do bump in the night.”

I’ll not ruin the rest of the plot for you. I can’t speak for the trueness of the movie to the comic series, but judging from the response of the crowd it seems that it was adequate. As a comic inspired action film I think it is wonderful (better than Daredevil, Blade, etc). The gothic scenes are gorgeous to the eye, Hellboy’s makeup is just amazing, and the CGI work is topnotch. The cast is solid, casting Ron Perlman as Hellbody and John Hurt as Professor Bruttenholm was excellent casting. Really there are few slow moments in the film, always some tension. They could turn this into a series and I would not complain if they did.

If you enjoy traditional Irish music you should give Altan a listen. World Music sponsored a concert given by them this evening and I was very pleased. The band was founded by a husband and wife duo in Donegal in the early 80’s. Her husband has passed away, but Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh continues to lead the group with spirited vocals and fiddle. Accompanying are accordion, a second fiddle, bouzouki, and guitar. Safe to say that there was not a weak point in the performance. Combine with a heavy dose of dry Irish wit and you have the full crowd stomping and clapping.

I was draw to Irish and Scottish folk music many years ago when I started to become interested in the musical traditions that inspired artists like Enya and Loreena McKennitt and groups like Clannad. This line of interest continued for me to American folk and Bluegrass, continuing to grow in fusion works such as that of No String Attached and some of the composition of Bela Fleck and Edger Mayer (ever hear Bluegrass on a Srad?). Appalachia Folk, Jazz, and Classical can be merged with wonderful results. As with science, riding musical borders can be a fun and exciting place.

This evening I participated in a study run by an M.I.T doctoral student at the Media Lab. I would have liked more time to talk with her, but basically she is studying dating. Part of the study was to set up a speed dating session with volunteers and to have complete surveys before, during, and after the session.

The basic idea of speed dating is that you have men and women in the same age group talk with each other for a brief period of time (usually 3-8 minutes). After the time is up you mark down weather or not you would like to see the person you just talked with again. At the end of the evening you submit your list and the men and women that both want to see each other again are given each other’s contact information. This trend is becoming more popular and many organization host them through online companies.

I’ve been curious about this style of meeting people for a while and this was being run for free, so I figured “What the hell.” The group was small 6 men and 5 women. My impression is that there is usually 3-4 times this number at a normal speed dating gathering. We had three minutes to talk and I was surprise to see that this really is enough time to know if you would like to talk with the person further. There were two women that I would like to see again and I talked with another man who runs a matching board at Harvard. He wanted to test the waters for bring BU into the fold.

The first survey we took was at the beginning of the evening. We were asked to rate ourselves based off the average person on a scale form 1 to 10 (ten being the best rating) on qualities such as education, attractiveness, outgoingness, intelligence, and earning potential. In between our talks we filled out more surveys asking similar questions about the person we just talked with, but adding a confidence interval (how sure of our rating were we), asking us if we would contact this person (yes, no, or maybe), and if we thought they would contact us.

The experience was a bit nerve racking, but fun. I don’t know if I will do it again, though I am glad that I tried it out. I am interested in what kind of data analysis the woman running study is going to use. She will have a very complicated data set and will need to conduct many of these sessions to get any significant trends.